digital rights
In March 2021, shortly before the elections scheduled for August, then Zambian president Edgar Lungu quickly signed and enacted three internet-related laws, one of which has remained especially problematic into 2022: the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act.
Namibia has become the latest African country to introduce mandatory SIM card registration and data retention regulations that will have a far-reaching impact on online privacy and data protection in the country.
Recent instances of the use of state surveillance apparatus for repressive purposes and prosecutions, compounded by a lack of data and online privacy protections and low internet penetration and usage, have heightened fears that the country is regressing in terms of safeguarding online rights.
This session will discuss human rights and media freedom in Ethiopia, invite questions about safety in the context of the recent conflict there and enable interaction between stakeholders, including the IGF Secretariat and Ethiopian IGF Committee.
The draft bill would have enabled surveillance abuse and privacy violations. The pressure that was brought to bear by various human and media rights organisations, and the international spotlight that it attracted, paid off and the bill was withdrawn and amended.
Since early 2021, the Kingdom of Eswatini has been gripped by waves of civil unrest, with reports of internet shutdowns implemented by the government in response to protests. It is in this climate of suspicion and unrest that cybercrime and data protection laws were gazetted in early 2022.
African internet users remain resilient in the face of all manner of state-sponsored and private tech-enabled cyber threats and obstacles, and civil society actors continue to raise and amplify their voices even as spaces for free expression, online and offline, are squeezed tighter and tighter.
Southern Africa Digital Rights is an online publication produced under the project "The African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms: Fostering a human rights-centred approach to privacy, data protection and access to the internet in Southern Africa".
A new research project explores how digital rights and climate and environmental justice intersect. It presents a landscape analysis and seven issue briefs, including four briefs from the APC network that point to collaboration between digital rights organisations and environmental justice actors, and areas of immediate impact and intervention for donors.
These issue briefs highlight potential priority areas for funding that would bring the work of digital rights organisations and environmental justice actors closer together, based on the need for the two groups to work more collaboratively given the global environmental and climate emergency.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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